This is a blog about music, photography, history, and culture.These are photographs from my collection that tell a story about lost time and forgotten music. Mike Brubaker

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Toni Vary, a Café Musician

05 May 2017

Posted by
Mike Brubaker

Remember that time we went to...?What was the name of that place?Wasn't he grandpa's uncle's cousin's son?Oh, yes, I remember now!

Why does someone save an old postcard?How can such small photosretain a magical power that compels a person to preserve it?What mysterious voicegives it this seductive charm? A kind of siren's call that whispers,"Save me! Protect me!"forcing the possessor to entomb this paper relic into some shoe box or desk drawer.

These are questions I often think aboutas I search the websites of postcard dealers.And the only answer that makes sense to meis memory,

because I collect the ephemera, the talismans, the amuletsof forgotten people's memories.

So skipping over why I would collect it, why would someone save a photo postcardof a smiling young man in a bowler hat?

Because he was once someone's sweetheart.

Michen's Liebling!~Michen's Darling!

The postcard was mailed on 29 November 1909from Tilsit in East Prussia,now known as Sovetsk, in the Russian oblast of Klaliningrad.A non-postal souvenir stamp of Tilsit's Deutsche Strasse, and Deutsche Kirche. was affixed to the front photo.One hundred years on, in this Russian enclave of the Baltic States,bordered by Lithuania and Poland, the German populationhas now nearly vanished.

Your love card received with great thanks but am quite amazed, (?) no longer see me again wilst pc s! (?)However, that is why the man pictured on the other side greets you.

Toni Vary

{better translations or corrections always welcome}

The young man with the pencil mustache and wide grin was a violinist with the Original Schrammel Quartet „Fidele Geister” or „Jolly Spirits”. He and his fellow musicians, Mich'l Hüsten on accordion, Sepp'l Pessi on contraguitar, and Franz Helige on 2nd violin appeared on a promotional postcard for their group. They were available as first class artists, playing Schrammelmusik, a Viennese style of lighthearted instrumental music popular in cafés, restaurants, taverns, and wine gardens. The contraguitar, a kind of harp guitar with an added neck and mulitple strings, provided the basso continuo accompaniment to the more melodic voices of the violins.

The postcard was never mailed and is otherwise unmarked
except for a stamped imprint of the:

Orig. Schrammel'nToni Vary„D'Deutschmeister”

It seems that Toni Vary was the leader of the quartet. On another postcard D' fidelen Geister posed in their traveling clothes, instruments in cases, as they get ready to board a train to their next gig..

Neither of these cards has a postmark but Toni seems about the same age 19-21, maybe even a bit younger, as he was in the first photo card of 1909.

A few years later, Toni Vary moved up to a elite level of salon music, changing from a quartet to a trio. Exchanging his casual Schrammelmusik folk costume for a formal white tie and evening jacket. he stands in the center without his violin, holding just a roll of music. The two other men do not have instruments but the one on the right resembles the accordionist Mich'l Hüsten from the Fidele Geister quartet. The gentleman on the left might be a cellist or a pianist.

The postcard has a printed caption on the front:

Salon–Terzett Toni Vary

The postcard was sent from Cöln, an archaic spelling of Köln, Germany
on 6.2.12 – 6th February 1912.

By a curious coincidence,
it was sent to Herrn Hermann Hamacher of Willich, Germany
which is just 10 km from Krefeld, the address for Minchen Hamacher.
The handwriting is very different
so I was unable to decipher the message,
but I believe the name Minchen, a diminutive of Wilhelmina,
is written in the center.
Is there a connection?

But before we answer thatlet's reconsider my theme. Why would anyone save an old faded blue postcard,an image of three men in formal wear,that's not even a real photo, but a half-tone print?

A century later, after two catastrophic wars,after divided nations, after redrawn borders,it's now secure in a binder of similar postcardson a bookshelf in my studio.Yet in this long tumult of history, how did these simple paper postcards manage to survive?

Memory is a powerful force.

So why on earth would I want to have these postcards in my collection?

Because Toni Vary once worked witha second violin who was a very unique musician,

a woman of color.

She is seated to his left, dressed in a frilly white blouse with embroidered vest and shiny satin pantaloons. She has a violin resting in her lap. Her costume is a folk style not unlike the female musicians of Eastern European musical ensembles from Croatia, Hungary, or Romania. Except that her complexion is distinctly darker. Surely she is not originally from a European race but is of African descent. How/why/when did she get into this little band with Toni Vary?

Seven musicians pose in a photographer's studio, five men and two women. The men wear fancy military style band uniforms with embroidered cuffs and button braid. One man has a snare drum, another a trombone, another a double bass, and one is without instrument. The second woman is of middlish age, a bit stout, and dressed in a vaguely European folk fashion that matches the violinist. She holds a roll of music, the symbol for the piano player. Toni Vary sits in center front with his violin.

It's a photo postcard of a musical group that resembles countless other small ensembles that played in Europe's salons, restaurants, and cafés in the years before World War One. The striking difference is that one musician is a woman of color. How she got there remains a mystery.

The postcard has no marks, not even a printing logo, so I can't definitively say that it is Toni Vary's orchestra. Unfortunately I've lost the original proof which was a sale listing of the same photo which included a caption with Vary's name. But I am confident it is the same man. It's what made me go look for more corroboration. It's what made me wonder how ephemera like this gets preserved.

This postcard is a promotional portrait of Toni Vary with violin. A typical artist's publicity shot with his name angled into the lower corner. The half-tone print has faded so I've improved the contrast. The brown color of the cheap rag stock paper is typical of postcards made during the war years.

There is no postmark
but the words Wien Schrammel MusikKlavier & Violine
are written in the upper right corner

And curiously the address reads:Willich

c/ Krefeld

The handwriting looks very similar
to the writing on the blue postcard.
Another connection?

Once upon a time,
music was a common color of urban life.
It added a dimension of sound
to a stroll in the park,
to an afternoon tea at the café,
to a evening supper after the theater.
Toni Vary's orchestra was part of that musical culture.

Here he stands on a small stage leading a chamber orchestra of seven other musicians. On the left are some string players and on the right is a flutist, a drummer, and another obscured instrument. The violinist seated just left of Vary looks like the uniformed musician standing without instrument in the septet photo. Behind Vary is a large cabinet stacked with music. In front of the stage's wooden rail are restaurant tables and chairs, and the walls are lavishly decorated. This is no cheap beer hall, but a proper high class establishment.

The postcard's back has a penciled note,

Orchester Toni Vary im Café Grosse, Frankfurt/Main

There is no date but it's likely the photo was taken during the war years. Even though the German public endured many hardships, there was always live music in German restaurants and theaters throughout 1914-1918. Toni Vary must have been very popular there as in October 1919, nearly a year after the war ended, Café Grosse honored him with a special postcard commemorating his 350th concert at the restaurant.

~Saturday, the 4th October 1919 8 o'clock in the eveningHonorary evening for the popular, brilliant violinist and conductor Mr. KapellmeisterTONI VARYOn the occasion of his 350th concert at

CAFÉ GROSSE

On this day Toni Varz will be presenting a special genius evening to the highly esteemed audience and guests. Wine order required

Table orders with the managing director, the waiters and the buffet

It was a special delight to discover this bit of ephemera showing that my musician had made it beyond the devastating years of war, and the tragic Great Influenza epidemic too. The fortunes of war can be good and bad, so the implication of his 350 concerts means that for much of 1918 if not earlier, Toni Vary was playing at the Café Grosse in Frankfurt. Though it's very likely that he did army service during the war, with his talent Vary may have been assigned to a military band or orchestra. Yet even those units were not entirely safe from incurring casualties.

* * *

We started with Toni Vary's story in 1909, jumped to 1919, and now enter a fog of time. For most of the photos in my collection there is just a single moment of a camera's shutter. Sometimes I find a few more that let me measure time in years, but rarely a decade, and never more. Yet somehow the magic of memory shields ephemera from harm. Eventually a postcard dealer puts it up for sale with enough description that a photo sleuth like me can find it on the internet.

Now we jump ahead two decades to April 1939.

It's a modern collage of photos making a promotional postcard. A violinist in white tie and tails stands on one side, four vignettes of women's faces on the other, a pile of musical instruments – drum set, saxophone, trombone, trumpet, accordion. The caption reads:

Toni Varymit seinen Künstlerinnen~Toni Varywith his artists (female)

The card was posted from Iserlohn, Germany and addressed to:Café u.KonditoreiGROSSESteckenberg/Harz

~Dear management!Friday June 1st first-class trio 2 young ladies 1 Mr. with outstanding singers!!! Songs, arias, mood songs of both ladies. Very first-class music to the most difficult concert and modern dance and mood music! Elegance appearance in black and gray. Largest musical repertoire. Arranging decorative specials, good advertising! Everywhere prolonged, Here in the 2nd month. Refr. the direction. With German greetingToni Vary, Iserlohn i/Wwest Haus Schulte"

Four months lateron September 1st, 1939Germany invades Polandand another Great War begins.

This is a story with only questionsand no real answers.Each postcard was found separately over several years from different dealers.The coincidences seem as remarkable to meas a paleontologist finding rare fossils in unexpected geological stratas.

I don't know if Toni Vary survivedthe terrible storm that we know willsoon envelope all of Europe.And I really know nothing at allabout his life or his family.His music making is just a guess. Did he ever perform in British music halls?Did he have a favorite café in Wien?Did he ever learn to play American jazz music on his violin?Answers to these questions are locked up in time.

Yet we do know something about Toni Vary.He was a talented musician who looked pretty sharp in a white tie and tailcoat.

And he once played music in a Viennese stylewith a female African-German violinist.

And once long ago he was Minchen's Liebling!

The rest belongs to memory.

* * *

For a coda I offer a video of the Neue Wiener Concert Schrammelnplaying in a café for an old woman who knows a thing or two about the power of memory.

***

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This is my contribution to Sepia Saturdaywhere you can always find something good on the menu.

6 comments:

I always enjoy watching your stories unfold into so much more than what they appear to be at first glance. As I listened to the music in the first clip, I thought about how difficult it would be to eat with that tempo.

About This

This is a web gallery of antique photographs of musicians. Most are of people whose names are now lost in time but they represent the many kinds of players, instruments, and ensembles that once defined musical culture.But these photographs also capture a moment in the history of people and places, so I write about that too.

All the photos shown here are in my personal collection.

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For information on my music for horn - go to the bottom of this column.